1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a POS system, an input/output control apparatus for use in a POS system in combination with a function-adding server, and a method to enable the POS system to perform at least one new functional application without changing the POS system.
2. Description of Related Art
POS (point-of-sale) systems as used in supermarkets, convenience stores, and other retail sales stores commonly generate data for printing receipts (“receipt-printing data”) by adding advertising information, including product advertisements and event announcements, to product information relating to the purchased goods and price information as disclosed in US 2004/0041022A1. The generated receipt-printing data is sent to a printer for printing a receipt. More recent POS systems may also print coupons, lottery tickets, and other information in addition to or instead of advertising information. As a result sales receipts have also become an effective advertising medium.
Adding a function for including such advertising information on printed receipts to existing POS systems not already equipped with the ability to add such advertising information requires a major modification of the existing POS server or POS terminal devices, and this necessitates a major capital investment. As a result, many small retailers must forgo using sales receipts as an effective advertising medium. To resolve this problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. 2000-79597 teaches using a method of providing such advertising information by connecting an adapter device between the host terminal and printer of a POS system in order to add to the POS system the function of adding advertising information to a sales receipt with a minimal capital investment and without greatly modifying the POS system. More specifically, this prior art method connects to a central server through an adapter device, and the server supplies the advertising information to the client terminals.
The advantage of the adapter device taught in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. 2000-79597 is the ability to print receipts containing advertising information with a minimal capital investment. The functionality of this adapter device is, however, limited to editing the print data between the server and the printer. More specifically, this system generates print data having advertising information added to the print data received from a host terminal, and supplies the combined receipt print data to the printer. The service that this system can provide is thus limited to adding advertising information from a central server. The adapter device taught in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. 2000-79597 therefore cannot add other new functions or handle complex, varied modifications to the POS system.
A more recent trend in retail sales is the need to provide a variety of services at the point of sale. Providing such services is particularly important as a means of differentiating a store from its competitors. Providing such services as issuing phone cards, accepting utility payments, and digitally processing checks at the point of sale in a retail store helps differentiate one store from another and improves customer service. As a result, introducing a system that makes providing such services possible before the competition provides a direct and immediate business advantage.
However, providing such a wide range of value-added services requires major modification of the POS server and POS terminal application, and thus a significant capital investment. For a small retail store to frequently change the POS system application in order to offer new services, and provide such value-added services in a timely manner, is therefore difficult.
The present invention is directed to a POS system, input/output control apparatus for use in a POS system and to a method for solving the foregoing problems without changing the existing POS application.